Herein and in the following documents of value are understood as sheet-shaped objects, which represent for example a monetary value or an authorization and which should therefore not be producible at will by unauthorized persons. Therefore they have properties which are not easy to reproduce, in particular such properties whose presence indicates authenticity, i.e. production by a correspondingly authorized authority. Some important examples for such documents of value are coupons, vouchers, checks and in particular bank notes.
Processing apparatus of the above-mentioned type are known in principle. Such a processing device can for example serve to enable operating staff, for example cashiers, to deposit bank notes in a security container from which they cannot remove any deposited bank notes. By means of the processing apparatus an operator can for example verify automatically whether a stack of bank notes is authentic, determine the number and denomination of the bank notes and transport bank notes which were recognized as authentic into the security containers in the final storage area. These security containers can then be removed from the apparatus and transported to a bank by security transport companies. Therein for example the value of the bank notes can be determined automatically and displayed for the operator. In addition the corresponding amount can be credited to the operator or a company employing the operator.
In the case that any discrepancies occur between the value of the bank notes determined upon their deposit and the value of the bank notes given in the operator's opinion it is expedient that the operator can abort the deposit procedure, i.e. the transport into the security container, in order to check the deposit of the bank notes again. For this purpose an intermediate repository is provided, in which all bank notes recognized as authentic can be intermediately stored before the transport into the security containers. If a discrepancy occurs after determining the value of all bank notes intermediately stored in the intermediate repository and communicating it to the operator, he/she can abort the deposit procedure, whereupon all bank notes intermediately stored in the intermediate repository can be output to the operator again.
For this purpose a corresponding apparatus can have an accepting device for a stack of bank notes, a singler for singling the bank notes in the stack of bank notes, a transport device for transporting the singled bank notes along a transport path, as well as a checking device arranged on the transport path for detecting at least one property of a bank note transported along the transport path. The transport path then leads to the intermediate repository. Documents of value from the intermediate repository selectively can be output to the security containers or to the operator.
Despite the careful construction of such apparatus, due to the greatly differing mechanical properties of bank notes in circulation, in particular those subject to strong wear, disturbances, in particular also jams, can occur during the transport of the bank notes within the apparatus along the transport path and into or out of the intermediate repository, which prevent the further operation of the apparatus. It is therefore provided that the apparatus can be opened for eliminating disturbances. In order to render manipulations of the intermediate repository by operators, in particular the unauthorized removal of bank notes, more difficult, such apparatus can be opened only by persons who have a corresponding special authorization. Since an authorized person consequently has to be called upon every disturbance along the transport path and in particular in the area of the intermediate repository, longer periods can possibly occur during which the apparatus cannot be used.